A beautiful, hazy, sunny Wednesday evening saw a motley crew gather in the South Dublin hills for the third installment of the IMRA Leinster League. This week, the location for the race was the Hell Fire Club forest south of Rathfarnham/Ballyboden.

Runners had to negotiate a 6km course involving no less than four steep climbs and similarly steep descents. Apparently, Jane and Graham can be blamed for this “Hellfire and Brimstone” route.

Fortunately, though, the warm weather, the relatively short course and the wide, dry trails made for a thoroughly enjoyable race … if a little frantic on some of the descents.

Also, runners can be proud to have briefly diverted the local hooligans at the Hell Fire Club ruins from their cider flagons for a few minutes!

…

I really enjoyed this race – nice and short, frantic descents and … yet another battle with Tommy Galvin.

I’ve mentioned Tommy as my “nemesis to be” before, and I’m not kidding. Every race we seem to trade places a few times … and this time, I just managed to get home one place and 13 seconds ahead of him! 🙂